Railway car construction



June 18, 1940. G. G. GILPIN RAILWAY CAR CONSTRUCTION Filed Jul -1a, 1958 Fig] Affarney Patented June 18, 1940 PATENT OFFICE 2,204,674 RAILWAY CAR. CONSTRUCTION Garth G.1 Gilpin, Riverside, 111., assignor to Standard Railway Equipment Manufacturing Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Dela- Will/1'6 Application July 18, 1938, Serial No.219,748

6 Claims.

, 1 The invention relates to railway cars and partlcularly to cars of the open top type. The side walls of such cars perform two functions; they are the load retaining means and they function as, girders which transmit the weight of the lads ing to the bolsters from which it is transferred to the trucks. The girder consists of upper chord lower chord, or side sill and stakes and wall plates. which function. as struts and webs respectively between the chords. I

I A large number of open top cars have been built with the stakes secured to the outside of the car and the wall sheets secured to the inside surfaces of the stakes. The overall width of such a car is the distance from the outside surface of the stakes on one side of the car to the corresponding surface on the other side of the car; The volume of the car available for lading is the distance between .wall sheets. The volume represented by the depth of the stakes on either side of the car is lost; it cannot be used for .lading and thecubical capacity cannot be in creased because of the restrictionsimposed by the exterior stakes.

A common method of overcoming the limitations described above is to buildthe cars with posed. As previously stated, they function as struts in a girder to transmit the weight of the lading. to the body bolsters. The lading usually hauled in open top cars is of a type which exerts a horizontal pressure, thus loadingthe stal ies as restrained cantilever beams supportedrigidly at the .lower chord and. semi-rigidly, to the I top chord. In switching cars,.it is frequently desirable to move a car by a means adjacent the side of the car, either by a cable and hook fastened to ;a stake or by a pole braced against a stake. so"

In order to withstand such loading a stake must have sufncient strength to resist lateral deflection, orutwisting about avertical axis. Another very severe service condition to which an open top car is subjected is the crushing load applied in dumping or unloading machines. The operaby sloping webs. tion to further increase the cubical capacity of thecar by increasing the width of the outwardly tion of these machines is such that the entire car is revolved about a longitudinal axis] until the lading discharges through the open top by gravity. The car is held in the machine by a series of blocks on either side of the car, these blocks exerting a crushing force against the sides of the car; thus the stakes must be capable of withstanding a direct compression load and also, since the blocksare not always positioned squarely against the stakes, a partially lateral load which tends to twist the stake about a vertical axis.

In order to obtain the maximum cubical capacity in a car and to protect the stakes from the corrloding influence of the lading, cars have been built with the stakes on the outside of the car and with outwardly projecting panels pressed in the wall sheets. These panels, lie substanstakes and between the upper and lower chords. They are connected to the margins of the sheets It is an object of this invenprojecting panels; that is, increasing their dimension longitudinally of the car.

It is another object of the invention to mcrease the capacity of the car by extending the panels of adjacent sheets closer to each other by decreasing. the space required between the panels for the stake. This invention applies principally 'to a stake which is riveted to the sheets along the longitudinal line of the stake. It is a further object of the invention, by positioning the rivets in offsets of the stake, preferably staggered, to decrease the space required for the stake without decreasing the strength of the stake.

In the drawing: 3 Fig. l is a partial side elevation of an open top railway car.

Figs. 2, 3 and 4 are sections on lines 2-2, 3-3 and 4-4, respectively, of Fig. 1.

Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8 tions. In Figs. 1 and 2, the usual parts of an open top railway car are shown, such as upper chord 2; lower chord or side sill 3; a cross member of the underframe 4; a stake 5 and portions of wall sheets 6 on either side iof the stake 5. The wall sheets 6 have pressed therein outwardly projecting panels! connected by webs 8 to the marginal portions 9 which lie substantially'in the plane of the upper (2) l and lower (3) chords.

illustrate alternate construe The panels extend effectively to the stake 5 and between the chords (2 and 3).

The stake 5 is substantially channel shaped and comprises connected webs l5, each web having a flange I6 projecting outwardly therefrom, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The webs l5 preferably diverge toward the wall but have pressed therein inwardly offset portions, ll whose walls l8 are substantially normal to the plane of the wall sheet 6. The flange it thus has parts I9 adjacent the offset portions I! to provide sufficient space for a die to form the heads on the rivets 20. The offset portions H in the opposite webs l5 are preferably staggered relativeto each other so that an offset portion in one web is not adjacent an offset portion in the opposite web.

The staggering of the offset portions l1 makes it possible to increase the cubical capacity of the car by moving the webs B (see Figs. 3 and 4) close to each other without weakening the stake 5. If the width. of a stake be, defined as the distance between the web-like portions shown crosshatched, the minimum width at any section of the stake is the distance between the web l5 and the offset portion Il'of the opposite web. If it is assumed that the offset portions [l are opposite each other, the walls i8 become relatively close to each other, thus weakening the stake 5. To increase the distance between walls'lil is to decrease the width of the panels I and consequently decrease the cubical capacity of the car. If the offset portions H are staggered, however, the effective width of the stake becomes the distance between a web and a wall lilof an offset portion ll since there is no section of the stake of less width than this. It is, therefore, an object of this invention toincrease the cubical capacity of the car by staggering the rivets, thus decreas ing the space required for the stake.

'Fig. 5 shows a modified construction in which the wall sheets 6 are not overlapped. A splice plate is riveted to the inside of the wall sheets 6 to reinforce the stake 5 against spreading and to protectit from the corroding influence of the lading. Otherwise, the stake 5 is substantially sun-- ilar to that shown in Figs. 1 to 4:.

' Figs; 6 and '7 show a modification of the stake wherein the connected webs 3d are not substantially flanged except at the offset portions 3!. The webs 3b are provided with small flanges 32 toincrease their bearing area on the wall sheet. The wall sheets 6 are secured to the stake 5 by rivets 33 through the parts 36. The parts 34 exist only adjacent the offset portions 31 and are entirely within the boundary of the webs, thus making it'possible to extend the webs 8 of the wall sheet to closely adjacent the webs 30 of the stake 5. Fig. 6 differs from Fig. 7 only in that the web-s 30 of the former are flared, while those of the latter are substantially normal to the wall sheets.

Fig. 8 is similar to Figs. 3 and 4 in that the webs I5 are provided with relatively narrow flanges [B which have relatively wide parts it adjacent, the oifset portions ll to provide space for rivets. In the modification shown in Fig. 8, however, the webs 85 are normal to the plane of the wall sheets; while in Figs. 3 and 4, the webs it are flared.

The accompanying drawing illustrates the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. In an open top railway car having an upper chord, and a lower chord, a substantially channel shaped stake extending between and secured to said chords, said stake comprising spaced apart connected webs, a pair of wall sheets extending between and secured to said chords to form a load retaining means therebetween, each of said sheets having an outwardly projecting panel formed therein, said panel extending substantially to said stake and between said chords to increase the cubical capacity of the car, the webs of said stakes having inwardly offset portions to provide parts for attachment of said stake tosaid wall sheets, and rivets forming means for said attachment, the offset portions in opposite being staggered relative to each other, whereby said panels may extend to closely adjacent said webs and whereby the effective width of said stake is the distance between a web and an offset portion of the opposite web.

2. In an open top railway car having an upper I chord, and a lower chord, a substantially channelshaped stake extending between and. secured to said chords, said stake comprising spaced apart connected webs, each web having a relatively small outwardly projecting flange, a pair of wall sheets extending between and secured to said chords to form a load retaining means therebetween, each of said sheets having an outwardly projecting panel formed therein, said panel ex" tending substantially to said stake and between said chords to increase the cubical capacity. of the car, thewebs of said stakes having inwardly offset portions to provide relatively large outwardly projecting flanges for attachment of said stake to said wall sheets, and rivets forming means for said attachment, the offset portions in opposite webs being staggered relative to each other, whereby said panels may extend to closely adjacent said webs and whereby the effective width of said stake is the distance between a web and an offset portion of the opposite web.

3. In an open top railway car having an upper chord, and a lower chord, a substantially channel shaped stake extending between and secured to said chords, said stake comprising flared connected webs, a pair of wall sheets extending between and secured to said chords to form a load retaining means therebetween, each of said sheets having an outwardly projecting panel formed stake and between said chords to increase thecubical capacity of the car, the webs of said stakes having'inwardly 'ofiset portions substantially normal to the plane of said wall sheets'to provide parts for attachment of said stake to said wall sheets, and rivets forming means for said attachment, the offset portions in opposite webs being staggered relative to each other, whereby said panels may'extend to closely adjacent said webs and whereby the effective width of said stake is the distance between a web and an offset por-. tion of theopposite web.

4. In an open top railway car having an upper chord, and a lower chord, a substantially chanpanel formed therein, said panel extending substantially to said stake and between said chords to increase the cubical capacity of the car, the webs of said stakes having inwardly offset portions substantially normal to the plane of said wall sheets to provide relatively large outwardly projecting flanges for attachment of said stake to said wall sheets, and rivets forming means for said attachment, the offset portions in opposite webs being staggered relative to each other, whereby said panels may extend to closely adjacent said webs and whereby the effective width of said stake is the distance between a web an an oifset portion of the opposite web.

means to secure marginal portions of said sheets flanges, a wall sheet disposed on each side of said 20 stake in substantially the same plane, means to secure marginal portions of said sheets to said flanges, said sheets having formed therein outwardly projecting panels adjacent said stake to increase the cubical capacity of the car, and staggered inwardly projecting offset portions in said stake in which said means are positioned for the purpose specified.

GARTH G. GILPIN. 

